This blog is dedicated to reporting the movements and musings, the updates and observations of the Erber family; including their personal, business and ministry pursuits and activities, as well as miscellaneous commentary on life in general and their family, friends and relations in particular.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

For what should be the last time this year, we once again spent the day packing up the trailer for a Resounding Voice business trip. As usual, this business trip does not exclude pleasure. Our plan is to pull out for Texas tomorrow morning.

Our travels this time take us down to the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival and Film Academy. The Academy will be held during the first half of next week, the Festival taking place over the weekend. We are eagerly looking forward to both events, and, of course, to another opportunity to visit with our many San Antonio connections and Vision Forum friends, and attendees from around the world. Thanks to the Huber family for once again graciously opening their home to our crowd! It is sure to be a fun and informative week. Of course, we'll be sure to keep busy working, too.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Yes, friends, we are back home! We've already reported part of our trip (The Alliance & HSLDA conferences) and you can check out Jonathan's Blog for info and pictures, too, but now we report the second half of our east coast travels: The Vision Forum Faith & Freedom Tour.

What a week it was! It began with tragedy and ended in triumph. Well, okay, so maybe that's dramatizing it a little bit. The 'tragedy' was that Jonathan's camera was stolen at the hotel on the first night of the tour. Thankfully, Josh, Nathan, & Jeremy also had cameras with them so we were still able to capture some pictures.

The triumph? Well, it had to do with a treasure hunt in historic Philadelphia on the final day of the tour...The guys and the various other teams gave it their best shot, but in the end a few of us who formed a team of "non-competing" ladies actually found the treasure first! We had such a blast and really had no intention of getting there first, but after sitting on a park bench for awhile - as the other teams traipsed around Philadelphia in search of clues - we figured out the answers to enough of the clues to locate the final clue and then, using our Caesar spy cipher to read that final clue, found the location of the treasure!But the treasure hunt was really just a peripheral part of the tour. During the course of the week we learned an amazing amount of the history of the Philadelphia area and got to visit many places of interest. One of the great delights of the trip is the wonderful people that we have the opportunity to visit with during the course of the tour. This year it was especially fun to have Nathan & Jeanine, Jeremy & Sara and their daughters with us.Listening to a lecture at Christ Church in PhiladelphiaServing lunches at the hotelRelaxing on the lawn at the Brandywine Battlefield (in the foreground, Joey Valenti takes a picture)

The week was really too full to give a comprehensive summary of it here! Great friends, full days, educational and inspiring lectures, thoughtful discussions, laughter, encouragement, long hours, lots of walking, lots of fun! If you have never been to one, you can only guess at why this is annually a highlight of our year. Below is simply a smattering of pictures from the week with more or less detailed captions. Hopefully someone of us will find time in the next few days to write a more detailed and orderly report of what we learned, saw, felt, and did. But for now, pictures!

Whenever a bench and a few moments to rest presented themselves, we were quick to take advantage of them!

It is quite an experience to walk through Philadelphia with a group of 160+ people!

Bill Potter is an incredible historian with a wealth of knowledge from many eras that he is always eager to share with us. Here we are visiting Old Swede's church from the very early days of the settling of the nation.

When you're in charge of sound and recording for an event, the sound better be good. And in the event of losing a part, Josh proved himself committed to quality by borrowing various supplies and sewing together a makeshift part for his mic.

The Monument at Valley Forge. What an incredible day that was! The sermon preached that morning on perseverance, and the visit to Valley Forge were both a great encouragement to our family!The Doug Phillips family (founder of Vision Forum) at Washington's headquarters at Valley Forge.

What would be a F&F Tour report without including the buses? They always prove to be the most adventurous part of the trip. And really, we didn't get lost too many times this year, and we were only pulled over once, and it was only one night that we almost got killed... Oh, and those of you who know a little bit about our family history may find it amusing that the bus that I, Jessica, was on encountered a couple of deer in the road shortly after this picture was taken. No, we didn't hit them, but we did have to brake for them!

Here our group gathers on the steps of the 2nd National Bank before viewing the historic art gallery inside.

The Zes ladies and I discuss Quaker "theology" between stops at the Arch Street Friends Meeting House and Carpenter's Hall.

Jeremy & Joanna listen to Mr. Potter lecture on George Washington's historic crossing of the Delaware. Sadly, Sara developed a bad cold over the week and was unable to join us for a few of the days!

Ah, yes. The rainy days! By God's grace the major rain held off during the day as we visited Princeton University and learned of the great men who were used of God during the college's early days and the influence the college had upon the founding of our nation. Our visit to Princeton focused largely on John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration of Independence, who was also a pastor, professor, and president of the college.

After the lecture by the Witherspoon monument at Princeton, we had some free time...

On Saturday, our plans were rained out so we all headed over to the Franklin Institute to browse the museum. The flight simulator was very popular!

Of course, as one of our responsibilities during the F&F Tour is preparing and serving the lunches, I would be remiss to conclude this post without a couple of pictures addressing that aspect of our week! Vision Forum Intern and family friend, Phillip Bradrick, is pictured with us above as we fill the lunch bags with all the important goodies: cookies, napkins, chips, carrots, etc. Below, we have the food line set up and are waiting for the crowd to come through and pick up their lunches before boarding the buses.

Friday, October 07, 2005

Yes, we are alive. Sorry we haven't been able to update our blog of late! Late nights, early mornings, busy days, and good times have been our lot this week. We've also had some computer trouble and haven't been able to upload pictures... when we get home we'll get some pics and a report posted for y'all!